TWD Pizza Rustica

Paul (my husband) is really, really in to making homemade pizza.  So much so that I'm now completely afraid to even try to make pizza for him, knowing there's no way that it could measure up.  So, I was pretty nervous when I saw that the recipe for this week was Pizza Rustica, and felt very relieved when I realized that Pizza Rustica isn't really like a pizza at all.  It's just like making a savory pie.  The dough came together very easily in the food processor (I'm always trying to get more whole grains in, so I replaced some of the AP flour with whole grain flour), and the filling wasn't much harder to put together.  In an effort to clean up my refrigerator, I took some liberties with the filling.  I had about half of a container of ricotta left and couldn't bring myself to buy another, so I just used that.  When I was shopping I saw that smoked mozzarella (which I love!) was on sale, but plain wasn't, so I went with that and used the entire ball in the filling.  I don't eat red meat, so I used up some lox I found in the freezer in place of the meat.  

This dough was a pleasure to roll out.  I think it's the addition of egg that makes it so much easier to roll out than typical pie dough, but it was great.  I even got it (reasonably) neatly into the pie pan.

After that I added the filling and then started to work on the lattice top.

I'd never made a lattice top before, and quickly realized why.  They aren't very easy!  I tried to be patient and just do the best I could.  It looks very, very far from perfect, but for my first attempt I think it's okay.  And luckily, I knew it wouldn't affect the flavor at all.

The hardest part was waiting for the pie to cool once it came out of the oven.  I didn't realize until I started baking it that it was supposed to be served at room temperature, and I was very hungry waiting.

All told, I enjoyed the filling, but I didn't really love the sweet crust/savory filling combination.  I think if I were to make this again I'd use a more savory dough.  It is definitely something I'd make again, though, it'd be a great dish for a brunch.

To see the recipe, visit the sites of the TWD hosts for the week: here and here.  Go here to see what all of the other TWD bloggers thought of the recipe.

P.S.  I have to say that as I've eaten more of the leftovers, I think the salty-sweet combination is growing on me.  I observe Passover and can't eat pie now, but I'm really looking forward to eating the rest of this (it's frozen now) sometime soon.